Trump Ends Push To Slash Prescription Drug Costs
By Carole Tanzer Miller HealthDay Reporter
WEDNESDAY, Jan. 22, 2025 -- With a sweep of the pen, President Donald Trump has ended a Biden administration effort to lower the cost of prescription drugs for people on Medicare and Medicaid.
Trump's order, signed shortly after his inauguration on Monday, targets policies his administration calls "deeply unpopular" and "radical," NBC News reported.
One of those now-cancelled policies directed Medicare to investigate ways to slash drug costs, including the possibility of a $2 monthly out-of-pocket cap on some generic medications.
Monday's actions also follow through on a key goal of Trump's first term -- weakening the Affordable Care Act. In particular, he nixed a policy that gave uninsured adults in 36 states an extra 12 weeks to sign up for coverage, according to NBC News. He also reversed an order that included more outreach funding to states, which was designed to make Medicaid stronger.
A key provision in former President Joe Biden's Inflation Reduction Act, negotiating Medicare drug prices, remains untouched for now. Last week, Medicare unveiled a list of prescription drugs up for negotiations next. They included Ozempic and Wegovy, the popular weight-loss and diabetes drugs.
A $35-a-month cap on insulin costs and $2,000 annual out-of-pocket cap on prescription drugs were not affected by the executive order signed Monday, NBC News reported.
Arthur Caplan, head of medical ethics at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine in New York City, told NBC News that it appears that Trump is moving with "great caution." Biden's bigger initiatives have so far been left alone, he noted.
He said the president knows that health care costs in the United States are far higher than in other parts of the world and that the government may need to intervene.
"Right now, he seems to be nibbling on the edges," Caplan told NBC News.
Larry Levitt, an executive vice president at KFF, a health policy think tank, offered a similar assessment.
He told NBC News some of the cancelled policies once meshed with Trump's goals, suggesting a possible change in his priorities.
By cancelling Biden's order to investigate new ways to lower out-of-pocket spending on prescription medications, Levitt said Trump may be signaling that he is less serious about addressing health care costs.
"Trump is kind of wiping the slate clean," Levitt concluded. "If you contrast Day 1 of this Trump administration with the last one, it is a different approach to health care."
Sources
- NBC News
Disclaimer: Statistical data in medical articles provide general trends and do not pertain to individuals. Individual factors can vary greatly. Always seek personalized medical advice for individual healthcare decisions.

© 2025 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
Posted January 2025
Read this next
More Than 1.8 Million Ninja Pressure Cookers Recalled for Burn Risk
FRIDAY, May 2, 2025 — More than 1.8 million Ninja Foodi pressure cookers are being recalled due to a risk of burns, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission...
RFK Jr. to Change Vaccine Testing Rules
FRIDAY, May 2, 2025 — U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. plans to change how vaccines are tested in the U.S., a decision that could impact how...
Scooter Riders Were High Or Drunk In A Quarter Of Wrecks
FRIDAY, May 2, 2025 -- Don’t drink and drive is a message the public has largely accepted. Now how about don’t drink and scoot? A quarter of people injured in...
More news resources
- FDA Medwatch Drug Alerts
- Daily MedNews
- News for Health Professionals
- New Drug Approvals
- New Drug Applications
- Drug Shortages
- Clinical Trial Results
- Generic Drug Approvals
Subscribe to our newsletter
Whatever your topic of interest, subscribe to our newsletters to get the best of Drugs.com in your inbox.